Many modern complex systems such as aircraft are generally composed of components, subsystems and the like. Each subsystem is composed of respective parts, and each part includes respective features. The parts of the complex system may be assembled into a number of subsystems, which in turn may be assembled into the complex system. In the context of an aircraft, one or more parts or subsystems may be designed as a modular component of the aircraft often referred to as a line-replaceable unit (LRU), of which a single aircraft may include a number of LRUs and other parts or subsystems.
Work on a complex system often includes pre-production, production and post-production activities performed by a number of workers including technicians, mechanics and the like. During production or post-production of the complex system, for example, workers may perform a number of activities such as build, repair and/or maintenance activities. In various examples, these and similar activities may be performed according to a work plan that formalizes instruction for building, creating or otherwise completing requirements or intention of an engineering design of the aircraft or components of the aircraft. The engineering design may include a set of requirements that indicate specifications, tolerances, purposes, materials or other aspects of the aircraft. The work plan may include a series of work instructions that together comprise a set of directives to be accomplished by workers, and each work instruction may include one or more work tasks, some of which may have their own process requirements.
Many complex systems require a precision environment to satisfy the requirements of an engineering design, which has historically required workers to use a full complement of tools, some quite specialized and some requiring expensive, recurring calibration. This often results in work environments cluttered with expensive tools and respective calibration papers, and reduced throughput for tools that must migrate through a queue of scheduled tasks.
Therefore, it may be desirable to have a system and method that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.